Wednesday, November 10, 2010

Pastrana Says Goodbye to Subaru, Hello to NASCAR and Toyota...


yup...sad as it is, after many years with Subaru, Travis Pastrana has evidently hung up the AWD and will now take to the roundy rounds of NASCAR under the guise of Michael Waltrip Racing...

There have been numerous hints that this would happen and the likely driving force is Red Bull.  It is truly a shame as Pastrana brought money and attention to Rally in the US.  With that gone it leaves Dave Mirra as the only factory Subaru effort at this point and if I was Dave I'd be looking elsewhere at this point given his lack of wins/solid performance despite the top shelf ride.

My personal opinion?  This is the dumbing down and vanilla-ization of TP.  He is getting into NASCAR right when its ratings are tanking, the sport couldn't be more boring, offers lots of low brow marketing opportunities and is completely outside his sphere of influence.  Does Red Bull really think a legion of NASCAR fans will switch from Bud to Red Bull and Vodka?  Do we really expect the flat billers to start showing up at Martinsville?  This has corporate marketing douchebags written all over it...

Good luck TP, you just lost a fan and the niche you created...
Pastrana Leaves Subaru...
Pastrana to join NASCAR/MWR

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